GATHER ‘ROUND CHILDREN AND LET ME TELL YOU A THING OR TWO ABOUT THIS GLORIOUS BOOK.

I HAVE OWNED THIS BOOK FOR A WHILE BUT NOW I’M SHARING IT WITH TUMBLR BECAUSE WE’RE ALL DRAGON-LOVING-FUCKS.

IN THIS BOOK

IN THIS MOTHERFUCKIN MASTER PIECE OF A BOOK

THE GIRL SEEKS OUT THE DRAGON BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO ESCAPE HER BORING LIFE AS A PRINCESS.

I DON’T THINK YOU GUYS HEARD ME.

THE GIRL WANTS TO BE WITH THE DRAGON.

AND THIS AINT EVEN IN A ROMANTIC WAY. SHE JUST RESPECTS THE DRAGON SO FUCKING MUCH.

THERE IS EVEN A PART WHERE SHE REPEATEDLY TELLS A PRINCE TO STOP TRYING TO SAVE HER BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO BE THERE AND THE PRINCE JUST ISN’T GETTING IT BECAUSE HE’S NEVER HEARD OF A PRINCESS WANTING TO BE AMONG DRAGONS BEFORE.

LIKE I CAN’T EVEN RIGHT NOW JUST READ THE DAMN THING.

THIS IS THE MOST READ BOOK I OWN AND I READ A LOT OF BOOKS AND HAVE MANY FAVORITES SO Y'ALL KNOW THIS BOOK MUST BE GOOD.

i have read it a total of 39749823792837493 times.

@sibilant-bliss :D

Every once in a while a post comes around that reminds me of how important these books were to wee me, and I have to reblog it so that other people can find this very important series.

Bonus: the dragon she goes to live with, Kazul, is also female. Through various events in the book, Kazul eventually becomes King of the Dragons (yes, you read that right–in dragon culture, the titles of King and Queen are not tied to gender.

I cannot TELL YOU how much little Stele wanted to run away and become a dragon’s princess.

I LOVED this series growing up. now I want to re read it…

I was wondering when someone was going to say it. D:

THESE BOOKS ARE THE FUCKING BEST OKAY

also the books are just fucking hilarious in general like the entire series is an exercise in dry humor and litotes

OMFG THESE FUCKING BOOKS OKAY.

I was about ten when I first picked this up, so I didn’t know much about all the nastiness that happens to fantasy ladies, but I DID know there were way too many princes and shepherd boys and woodcutters and sailors and such having all the fun. By the time I was done, I was like, “Mom, pack my bags, I’m going to live with a dragon and be friends with a witch.” (The spit-take was epic.)

Cimorene was the fucking REASON I got into reading fantasy novels. It was so refreshing to see a strong female lead who didn’t get dumbed down or “humbled” (we all know what it means, fuck you GRRM) somewhere along the way. Cimorene was strong, she was sassy, she was smart, she was independent, and she was still GIRLY. And she didn’t need to fiddle-fart around with special powers or magical ancestral relics to kick wizard ass, oh no. CLEANING SUPPLIES.

And don’t even get me started on Morwen and how much that influenced my interest in magic.

Dealing With Dragons led to The Ruins of Ambrai, which led to The Dragonstar books, which led to The Abhorsen Chronicles, which led to The Black Jewels series…

STRONG FEMALE FANTASY LEADS ARE IMPORTANT.

*gasp* no one has posted the absolutely AMAZING Trina Schart Hyman cover for this book, though!

look at her amazing eyebrows, her sword, her attitude! I checked this book and its sequels out of the library so many times I might have set a record.

Ah, god, these books are the best. And they were something of a bonding experience for myself and my mom when I was 16; I read through the entire series out loud to her over the course of a couple months. (We didn’t intend to start; I was rereading the series yet again and wanted to share the great opening lines, and just didn’t stop!)

These books are the fantasy series both of us wanted when we were kids, with characters that felt infinitely more real and relatable than yet another farmer’s son inevitably thrown into a hero role. It turns all the princess tropes on their ear and laughs at them for being so shallow (it does not laugh at shallow PRINCESSES however, and that distinction is SO important). The female characters support and help each other in their own way – even the ones the tropes suggest would be a hinderance or antagonistic – and this is the one series I recommend to all my friends who have kids.

It’s so nice to see these pristine cover images, because all of mine look like this:

OH MAAAN. I loved these books. I got them out of the library. I think I actually accidentally read the last one (about Cimorene’s son) first and then went back and read her books. The last one is actually still my favorite but they’re all so great.

THESE BOOKS ARE AMAZING and also hilariously your reading order was actually the order they were written in - Talking To Dragons was published first in like 1980 something and then the other three were written later in the 90s. I absolutely loved them too; Cimorene always struck me as the kind of hero that you’d actually want to be, rather than the hero that the book tells you is good or admirable. She’s smart and she likes cooking and she finds satisfaction in organizing things and she loves to learn and she’s brave and she fights against cruelty and cares for people and ugh, Cimorene is just great.

And where the FUCK is my $100 million blockbuster adaptation of this btw???

And speaking of the last one, it wasn’t until I was a good deal older and rereading them that I realized the one about Cimorene’s son is exactly the picture of a stereotypical Hero Myth, with a vaguely-defined Quest and a mysterious backstory and mentor characters who won’t tell the hapless teenage hero exactly what’s going on or what he’s supposed to do.

BUT because this is the fourth book in the series, we the readers know EXACTLY what’s going on. It eliminates the stupidity of halfassed explanations for why the protagonist can’t know everything, because it works off of the previous three books so that the reader knows why some things have to remain mysterious, and we know what exactly his Heroic Quest is supposed to achieve, and the fun isn’t in “oooooh what is this teenage hero’s destiny?” but rather “how the hell is he going to pull this off?” and also “oh so this is what everyone’s been up to between books 3 and 4!” and I am absolutely 100% sure this was intentional.